I love BOGO’s. Most people do. In fact, there are some people who center their entire grocery shopping on what their local supermarket has on “buy one, get one free” that week. But if you’re only saving strategy is based on BOGO’s, you’re spending too much.

Novice shoppers will get their BOGO and continue down the aisle, silently giving themselves a pat on the back for the extra cash they just saved. But, you’re smarter than that, and you can get an even better deal to save you even more money by combining coupons and store policies with BOGOs. How? Easy.

1. Learn the Store Policy
You can never move away from novice shopper status if you don’t know and understand the store policy. Each store treats BOGOs a little differently, so before you start shopping, ask how the deals work so you know before you get to the checkout line. Do you have to buy two items in order to save? Or, is one of the items only charged at half price? Whenever you’re buying something on BOGO, be sure to check your receipt carefully to see how they ring up.

Once you know how they handle BOGOs, the next step is figuring out how many coupons they allow on a BOGO deal. For example, if you’re shopping at Walgreens or CVS, you can use two coupons on each BOGO deal; at Rite Aid, though, you can only use one.

Most store policies will be online, but you can also always ask when you’re there before you start shopping.

2. Ringing Up Full Price
Drugstores will typically charge full price for the first item and nothing for the second. While it may seem like you’re already getting the savings, you’re actually not. If the first BOGO item rings up at full price, and the second BOGO item rings up at $0, you actually have to buy two items to realize the BOGO savings. To combine coupons with BOGO, you may even be able to get the entire purchase for free if you had two coupons, one for each BOGO item.

For example: Frito-Lay Family Snack Sizes ($5) are on BOGO. You buy both items for a full price of $10, but one rings up at $5 and the other zero. Your additional BOGO coupon will take $5 off the price, bringing your grand total to $0 for something that would have cost you $5. That’s a 100% savings!

3. Ringing Up Half Price
On the other hand, many grocery stores will typically charge you ½ price for each item instead of full price for one and zero for the other. In that instance, you don’t actually have to get both items to realize the savings. Having an odd number of coupons will also allow you to maximize your savings on this BOGO.

Using the same example, each Frito-Lay family pack would ring up at $2.50 if there was only one BOGO coupon. Not bad. But, using three coupons would allow you to get three of the same item for nothing.

Stephanie Nelson is the Coupon Mom. With more than 6 million members, Coupon Mom gives members access to thousands of printable coupons for groceries, restaurants and more. She has been called ‘”the rock star of the recession” by the Washington Post and her book, The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, is a New York Times best seller.

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

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eLocal’s mission is to help consumers connect with local businesses. Infographics, like the above example inspired by our www.elocalplumbers.com, help to spread awareness of interesting or important issues. Jaclyn works with the visual projects at eLocal.

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.